Happy Thanksgiving. Let the celebration begin.
You say “What? Wait! A month too early. Wait til the Halloween decorations are down.”
But the time to shift into the thanks-giving gear is now.
A few experiences in the past weeks were reminders that the season of thanks shouldn’t wait for the arbitrary date selected to mark the annual capital-T Day festivities.
First, there was the Gospel at Mass on Oct. 13 telling of Jesus healing 10 people afflicted with leprosy. He sent them off to the Jewish priests to get a clean bill of health that would allow the outcasts to return to their civilized society. Only one of them, a Samaritan, came back, falling at the feet of Jesus to thank him. Jesus said “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
The account by Luke echoed the first reading from the Old Testament about the foreign general Naaman who was sent by Elisha to heal his leprosy by washing in the River Jordan. Naaman nattered about the prescription to jump into the river seven times, but recognized that his healing came from God and he returned to thank the prophet.
“How often does it happen that we pray for something, when we are having an operation or have a crisis, but when it is over we forget God?” said Father Joseph Pasala, reflecting on the readings. “When is the last time you thanked God for some gift? When is the last time you thanked a relative or friend or coworker?”
The pastor from a New Bedford, Mass., parish spoke to St. Patrick, Kaimuki, parishioners, one of seven India-born priests from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts who talked to island congregations this month about the India mission which continues the work of caring for leprosy victims who are still shunned in that society.
It’s her job
The message was still humming in my brain later in the week when I said “Thank you” to a Kaimuki parking lot attendant. It brought a grunt from her and a snarly comment from my backseat driver: “It’s her job and she was surly so why thank her?” Sure, taking my quarters is her job and sitting in the hot afternoon sun to do so is part of her working conditions. She’s one of the people who keep the gears meshing for our comfortable pattern of life, people who do the lowliest work and often for the least pay. If they don’t deserve a “thank you,” I don’t know who does.
Why should you say thanks to the store clerk or waitress or the office janitor; will it undermine your self-image as too cool, too important? Why thank your employees or coworkers; could it set a dangerous precedent of conviviality, blur the barriers of who is better or more powerful? If we get started doing it, will it be a lifetime commitment to keep interacting with people who provide us services? Would we all start expecting civility, even in situations with the “others” we shun in modern society not unlike leprosy of Biblical times.
For that matter, why make a big deal about thanking your parent or your kid or your spouse. If it’s all part of the family routine, why keep saying that word? They know their birthday gift was a perfect choice for you, why keep talking about it? They bailed you out in the nick of time again, isn’t that what families are for? They coped with your authoritarian, argumentative, disappointing, hurtful, inappropriate behavior; better just pretend it didn’t happen than talk about it.
I’m not talking hyperbole here, not drama. A simple one or two words will do it.
If we’re listening to the Gospel, we know that reaching out to people who need our help, respect, love is what’s expected of us all of our lives. We know we can never thank God enough for the blessings in our life, and one small way is to express it to the people who reflect his goodness in our lives.
Plymouth relived
Aside from the spirituality of thanks-giving, there’s the patriotic theme of people helping and sharing with people in need. Our national holiday to celebrate capital-T day is rooted both in American history and in faith tradition. If the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans hadn’t helped the clueless Pilgrims plant their crops and hunt down the hapless turkeys and other meat, there would not have been grounds for the 1641 harvest festival at Plymouth.
It is relived as a giving moment in so many ways today. The Salvation Army will feed thousands at its mega-feast at the Blaisdell Center, aimed for people needing the food, but also welcoming people needing the company.
Church congregations, Catholic and not, will fill boxes of food and invest in supermarket certificates to distribute to homeless and needy people.
Newman Center/Holy Spirit parish members will host their annual potluck banquet for University of Hawaii students far from home at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 28, following a 10 a.m. Mass.
An island Thanksgiving tradition that always resonated for me is the interfaith service which congregations in the Nuuanu area have shared since 1960. Started long before interfaith collaboration became popular, the different faiths found common ground in the concept of giving thanks. The late Father Joseph Turk, former pastor of St. Stephen Church was one of the originators. Jewish, Buddhist, Unitarian, Bahai and Christian churches of different flavors take turns hosting the service to be held this year at 7 p.m. Nov. 26 at the United Church of Christ at 467 Judd St.
“We share gratitude for our common humanity,” said the Rev. Jonipher Kwock, First Unitarian Church of Honolulu minister, one of the event planners. Although the focus of the day seems to be abundance of food, “gratitude is not a material thing, there is spiritual groundedness” to the idea of being thankful, he said.
“Jesus talked about ‘prayer without ceasing’,” said Kwock, quoting Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “Pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances.”
Kwock said “a radical form of prayer is giving thanks all the time. I think about saying grace at meals as a celebration of Thanksgiving 365 days a year.”
Alas, politics has caused an earthquake in the “common ground” this year. The divisive political and religious issue of same-gender unions, which some of the Nuuanu congregations support, led St. Stephen Parish and a Baptist church to withdraw from the interfaith Thanksgiving observance.
Meanwhile, Kwock’s remark about 365 days of thanks twanged while I listened to/tried to tune out the ongoing Hawaii Public Radio donation-seeking spiel. One suggested format for contributions is $1 a day, totaling $365 per listener per year.
Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea for a Thanksgiving celebration. What if I pledge that at least one “thank you” will fall from my lips each day. No less than one, but no rule against more. That sounds do-able.
Luckily for my back-seat driver, she was out of the car before I got on a roll with my topic. Lucky for me, I guess, or that would be our last lunch date!
But that parking lot woman has not seen the last of me. She hasn’t heard my last thank you.
